2.1 Graffiti: crime or free expression?
Graffiti can take many different forms. It can include stencil art, freestyle artistic expression, and tag graffiti (a graffiti writer’s personalised signature). It may be commissioned and legally painted, such as murals, or it may be sprayed illegally on public or private spaces (Vanderveen and van Eijk, 2016).
Some forms of graffiti are viewed as ‘street art’, which can be illegal or legal. Some commentators have specifically claimed that street art should be seen as ‘a form of subcultural activity that is defined as unsanctioned visual art developed and/or practiced in public spaces’ (Alpaslan, 2012, p. 53). By this definition, street art is characterised both by its illegal nature and artistic form (Hundertmark, 2003). It is thus differentiated from graffiti that is less easily defined as ‘artistic’, such as some forms of territorial graffiti (which is when different groups claim different urban spaces with tags or logos), vandalism or commissioned corporate street painting.
Activity 4 What is graffiti?
Watch the video on graffiti below. As you watch, note down some of the points made and your own thoughts about whether graffiti is a crime or a form of free expression.

Transcript: Video 1 Graffiti: art or vandalism?
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What do you think? Should graffiti always be a crime? If not, under what conditions wouldn’t it be?
Discussion
Acts of graffiti or what is generally now referred to as graffiti have existed for thousands of years and appear to exist in virtually all modern cultures and countries. But the nature, scale or seriousness of graffiti is open to interpretation. There is no universally recognised way of recording or measuring graffiti and it is by no means certain that everybody considers graffiti harmful, or a crime. For example, the stencilled work ‘Girl with a balloon’ by the Bristol street artist Banksy, depicts a young girl watching her heart-shaped balloon float away. Originally, it appeared illegally on the side of a bridge, but by July 2017 it was voted the UK’s best-loved piece of art (Kennedy, 2017).
Taking graffiti as an example, it becomes a little clearer that the question ‘what is crime’ is not easily defined. Graffiti is a social activity that attracts widely differing public opinions on how it should be understood or responded to and whether it should be controlled and punished or embraced and celebrated.
The next activity asks you to try and answer some questions about graffiti to get you thinking about the different ways it can be interpreted.
Activity 5 Graffiti quiz
a.
art
b.
social protest
c.
vandalism (crime)
d.
all of the above
The correct answer is d.
a.
political resistance
b.
music
c.
justice
d.
public narrative
The correct answer is a.
a.
a means by which people signal that they are happy with the way society is organised.
b.
a means by which people try to speak out to say that not everyone is in agreement with the status quo.
c.
a form of collective action.
d.
none of the above.
The correct answer is b.
a.
It often includes messages of resistance or social protest.
b.
The public holds different views on graffiti, some see it as art, other see it as crime.
c.
It is an illegal activity.
d.
The reasons people engage in graffiti are not well understood.
The correct answer is b.
a.
It can be viewed as a threat to private property.
b.
It is highly visible and public.
c.
It often includes poor grammar.
The correct answers are a and b.
Thinking about the different ways graffiti can be thought about and understood opens up questions about what is and isn’t defined as a crime and how public opinion can differ on what should or shouldn’t be deemed illegal. You will consider this more next.